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The

Royal
School

of Mines.

ROBERT
STEELE,

Chemistry

[1815

building in Jermyn Street, in association with the School of Mines, the organisation of which had been in progress for several years (p. 705). On the death of De la Beche in 1855, Murchison became Director-General, and held the post till he died in 1872. His successor was A. C. Ramsay, who, on retirement in 1881, was followed by A. Geikie (head of the Survey until 1901). The Royal School of Mines had been removed to South Kensington, and its name has been recently changed to the Royal College of Science. Except in one respect, to be mentioned hereafter, the Survey, though it has been sometimes liable to the common frailty that office is equivalent to inspiration-has done almost inestimable service, by its maps and memoirs, to British geology.

DURING the early years of the century chemistry was the science which, more than any other, influenced men's minds. It had been recognised that knowledge was international, and an honourable rivalry was set up for priority. Berzelius in Sweden, Gay Lussac and Thenard in France, strove for pre-eminence with Davy in England. The great scientific periodicals were founded, and in full working order-the Annalen der Physik und Chemie (1790), the Annales de Chimie et de Physique (1789), and a few years later the Philosophical Magazine (179798)--and any new discovery was subjected to the criticism of Europe. The Royal Society and the Institute of France set an example to others of interest in the science, and the happy fortune of the Royal Institution in securing Davy as a lecturer Humphry ensured its own success, and directed the attention of the public to a lighter side of science, which it has never lost sight of since. In 1816 Davy dealt a first blow to the doctrine of Lavoisier, that all acids must contain oxygen, by proving that what was then known as oxymuriatic acid contained no oxygen, but was an undecomposed body-chlorine. In 1813 Faraday (p. 254) was appointed an assistant at the Royal Institution, and Brande became Professor of Chemistry on Davy's resignation of the post.

Sir

Davy.

In his earliest lectures at the Royal Institution Davy had laid stress on the connection between science and industry, and some of his finest work was inspired in this way. His lectures on agricultural chemistry lie at the root of all subsequent

18321

treatises on the subject, and he was the first to insist that agriculture must look to natural science for a solution of its problems. But a still greater example of the debt of industry to science is the invention of the safety lamp (1816: p. 249) in direct response to an appeal from those interested in coal

[graphic][merged small]

mining. With this discovery Davy's active career comes to a close.

On the death of Sir Joseph Banks, Davy was elected Wollaston. President of the Royal Society, Wollaston (V., p. 752) refusing to be put into nomination. While he had made few great discoveries, the volume of Wollaston's work was considerable; his invention of the reflecting goniometer made modern. crystallography possible, and the method of working platinum was in the first instance due to him. His cautious criticism was of the greatest service in the long discussions of the atomic theory of Dalton.

Prout's
Hypothe-

sis.

[1815

In 1815-16 William Prout (1785-1850) published papers on the relation between the atomic weights of the elements and the density of their vapours, in which the tenet was set up that the atomic weights of the elements were multiples of that of hydrogen-the lightest element known. Perhaps an idea from

[graphic][merged small]

which such weighty theoretical conceptions have arisen has never originated in such a faulty manner. Prout's own investigations are few and of no importance, but the prospect afforded by him of a simple explanation of the problem of the constitution of matter served as a spur to further research, which has since disproved his hypothesis.

Brande (1786-1866), who succeeded Davy at the Royal

1832]

Institution, was not a man of great originality. He was con- Brande. cerned with Faraday in the scientific study of coal-gas, and was a well-known writer on chemistry. He founded in 1812 the Society for the Improvement of Animal Chemistry for the study of physiological chemistry.

Chemical

Another important work done in this period was Faraday's Faraday's achievement in 1823 of condensing chlorine and a few other work. gases. The simplicity of the process and the ability shown in dealing with it marked him off as the only successor to Davy possible; but though he made several important chemical discoveries, and notably that of benzine in the liquor obtained from condensed coal-gas, his future career belongs rather to physics than to chemistry. A new generation was, however, growing up which succeeded to the achievements of Davy and Priestley, Dalton and Faraday, and built on their foundation chemistry as we know it to-day.

Medicine

and

Surgery.

The
Profession.

MANY events have combined to make the medical history of the D'ARCY nineteenth century remarkable. The restlessness of its opening POWER. years was a fitting prelude to the activity which has marked its whole course. The first effect of educating the rank-and-file of the profession was to evoke the critical faculty, to overthrow authority, and to widen the outlook both in medicine and in surgery. The medical practitioners in England at the beginning of this century were the physicians, the surgeons, and the apothecaries; beneath these three recognised classes was a group of nondescript persons calling themselves surgeon-apothecaries, men-midwives, cuppers, tooth-drawers, compounders and dispensers of medicines. The physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries alone had received even the rudiments of a technical education, and had submitted themselves to examination, but they formed the minority of the profession. The host of general practitioners had gained their knowledge empirically, were subject to no controlling body, and were unrecognised by law.

The first movement in advance came from the ranks of the The Apoprofession itself. Improved methods of teaching showed the thecaries general practitioner his ignorance. The better class amongst them tried to benefit their fellows by making education com

Act.

Medical

Teaching.

[1815

pulsory; the baser sort endeavoured to limit competition by establishing legal restrictions to the indiscriminate practice of medicine. The objects of both parties were, therefore, identical though their motives were widely different. The two great corporate bodies of the kingdom were approached, but neither the College of Physicians nor the College of Surgeons was disposed to assist, still less to initiate, any change in the system to which they had been accustomed. Recourse was then had to the Society of Apothecaries, which had long fretted under the controlling action of the College of Physicians. The company was induced to promote a Bill in Parliament, and the Apothecaries Act passed the Legislature on January 15th, 1815. This Act marks a new era of medicine in England, for it ordained that no one should practise as an apothecary in any part of England or Wales without being properly qualified: that the qualification should be ascertained by examination, and that no person should be admitted to the examination unless he had served an apprenticeship to an apothecary of not less than five years, and could bring certificates of a sufficient medical education and of good moral conduct. Unlicensed apothecaries were punished by a fine, and expressly debarred from recovering any charges claimed by them in a court of law. The new Act did not affect chemists or druggists, and the licensing powers of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Royal College of Surgeons, were exempted from its provisions. The Act introduced a new and important principle into the practice of medicine, for the State then affirmed it to be necessary for every medical man to give evidence that he possessed a minimum amount of knowledge before he entered upon the practice of his profession. Hitherto, anyone might practise his art unmolested, unless he desired to enter the Army or Navy, so long as he did not encroach upon the privileges of the various corporate bodies in the kingdom. The Society of Apothecaries executed its difficult task with judgment, and a regular system of medical education was soon developed.

The multiplication of the private medical schools was one of the first results of the increased demand for medical education. The schools were officered by able men recruited from all parts of the kingdom, but their success made them.

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